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I have been really fussy about relative scale for most of my four decades of miniature painting. I want figures to be close in size to each other, which has led to me making some rash decisions about using slightly smaller scale miniatures with slightly larger miniatures typical of the Big Game Juggernaut.

Recently, I was out for a walk and had the old “no one is the same height, why stress that in miniatures so much” thing brought to life in living contrast. I am a little over 2 meters in height, and most people I encounter in the world are a little shorter, or sometimes quite a bit shorter than I am. So, yeah… why am I stressing out about that so much with miniatures?

By placing those roadblocks in my way I’ve been blocking perfectly good Frostgrave minis from taking up space on my hobby table. They’re inexpensive, fun to paint, and make great rabble and foot troops for my skirmish games.

Sure, they might come up to a Warhammer hero’s shoulder, but on that walk most of the dudes I was passing by came up to my shoulder. So, that’s settled. Frostgrave minis are back on the menu, boys!

This might seem a little silly to most folks. Wardollies and their scale don’t keep most people up at night. I’m going to try my damnedest to give this a shot and not stay up all hours shrieking into the void about it!

Oof, those layer lines on my terrain, though! I think it might be time to get back to scratch built terrain. No knock against 3D printing, but I miss the charm of scratch built buildings! That, though, is another post. Here’s a cultist to wrap things up!

Am I alone in this? Does anyone else out there stress out about size differences within a scale? I’m not really losing sleep over this, but it does bug me a bit!

Malifaux is an amazing game. I love the lore, adore the miniatures, and think the game mechanics are incredible. I’m also so intimidated by the rules that I know I’ll never play a game of it again.

I still love painting the minis, and I have to be honest with myself; I’m far more a painter than a gamer anyway, but I sure would love to find a ruleset that allowed me to use these guys!

The big zombie is part of the Residents of Rottenberg crew, helping bring about a town that zombies can un-live in peace. At least I think that’s what they’re doing. It’s in my head-canon and won’t leave! I wish I had seen the seems in the sculpt before painting him, but thus are the perils of assembling and painting in bad light.

The next gribbly is a Desolation Engine, pretty much killing machines that only want destruction and carnage. They’re hard to kill, and are made up of machinery and dead bits of folks.

Even worse, if you DO manage to destroy one, they become a bunch of Steampunk Abominations, which is a fun little bonus. I think, I should say, since I’ve never actually played this crew and have no idea how they work. But it SOUNDS cool!

Normally, folks paint these guys up in dead flesh schemes, but I wanted to do some purple hues and play a little. Not strictly lore accurate, but it works for me!

It took some time management to wrangle this project to completion! I have about a dozen projects in progress right now, and the part of me that launches that many projects kind of hates to see one get crossed off. But Lila Moonshadow, my intrepid half-ranger, finally has her company assembled!

As per my own rules for my Rangers of Shadow Deep campaign, each of the models will need to be printed at home and painted before they see play. I will make a few exceptions where needed, but the Company of the Moonshadow were all printed on my Elegoo Mars and a dream to paint.

Erdwyn Ghost-Step and Morlaine DeShayne are the newest members of the party. Erdwyn is your classic rogue, choosing a life in the shadows over renown and glory. Morlain has been traveling the countryside, looking for a cause to swear her sword to. In Rangers of Shadow Deep Morlaine would be a Swordsman, but I’m changing the class to Sworn Sword.

Lila’s oldest companions came with her when she set out on her quest. The Dwarfen Barbarian Gino Stonefist has known Lila since she was an apprentice, when he was tasked to guide her through the Crimsonthorn wilds. They became fast friends, and were eventually joined by Bromwyd Stoutshield, Gino’s impetuous nephew. Browmwyd is a man-at-arms, while Gino, of course, is a barbarian.

Now that the party is done. I need to finish up the rest of the monsters for the first encounter, get some buildings put together, and finish up the design on my stat cards!

It’s been a long, terrible, and murky road, but I think I might finally have my lighting dialed in for miniature photography. Here are my Tengu from Bushido, finally looking like I have always wanted them to look in a photo:

Compare the shot above to this glam shot of the same figs from a few months back:

The second photo looks pretty okay, but the warmth of the colors isn’t there, and you can’t see how cool the feathers on old Papa Owl look. It’s a pretty staggering difference when you’re trying to show off your chops as a painter.

I have tried so many damned set-ups for photographing minis. Everything from light booths to a trash-can with a light shining through it. Nothing was giving me what I wanted.

Then, I decided to print off a washed out grey background, which I taped to a stand that had a back panel on it. I taped the background on with a slope at the back, so that the minis could be photographed without a crease in the background.

It takes two studio lights held about 8 inches above the stand to light everything up, and it makes a world of difference in the quality of the photos!

Now, I have to fight off the temptation to go back and take new photos of all of my minis! It’s a pretty tough urge to fight!

Now, I just have to ride out the pandemic until Shiv Games opens back up. Most of us have been working on Bushido bands over the last few months, and I know we’re all itching to check out the game!

According to Icelandic tradition there are a bunch of nasty spirits that start wandering the land on the 12th of December. Today is the 18th of December, and I missed a few days. But I’ll make up for it with one of my favorites, Hurðaskellir. His name literally means Door Slammer. Old Hurðaskellir is the reason why doors slam shut, especially late at night.

Hurðaskellir is one of the Yule Lads, and he comes down from his mother’s cave on the 18th to harass people and scare naughty children. He is occasionally accompanied by the Yule Cat, a very nasty feline that eats really wicked kids.

So, be extra kind this holiday season… That slamming door you hear tonight might just be Hurðaskellir, coming to scare you in your sleep!

Hurðaskellir painting from The Yule Lads: A Celebration of Iceland’s Christmas Folklore by Brian Pilkington